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Friday, 11 July 2014

Oh, Happy Day

Just found two Palmate Newt tadpoles in the big pond. That's the first sign of newts since we created the ponds so am bouncing around doing a little Happy Dance :} If I'm reading my Collins Pocket Guide to Freshwater Life correctly, this is a small female and she was back in the water as soon as I had a couple of pictures.

Purple Loosetrife, grown from seed a couple of years ago, now towers above everything else and looks wonderful.

Can't say I like the sight of that loosestrife. Over here purple loosestrife is a rampant invasive, choking out indigenous water/understory plants. It easily reseeds and is a real problem. Lovely newt news, though. Lucky you.

Kris, you're absolutely right about the loostrife. It seeds very freely and I spend quite a bit of time pulling up 'volunteers'. However, it's a wonderful wildlife plant so I like to keep a few clumps of it.